Raschke disagrees with the view of some experts that Constanzo was psychopathic. Raschke states: "Constanzo and his followers were not irrational; they were merely reverting to a magical worldview and logic that were starkly imprinted in the pre-Christian strata of their own society."(12) Here is another common theme in Raschke's book: The occult and Satanism causes criminality. This is a common theme advanced by Satanic conspiracy supporters, and easily refuted. It completely ignores the fact that many people professing to be Christians end up in jail. People like Jimmy Baker, former televangelist of PTL (Protect The Lord) ministries is a prominent example of this. Do we then call what they do "Christian Crime"? If we start labelling the criminality of people according to their beliefs, then we will have to create categories such as "Buddhist crime,""Hindu crime" and "Agnostic crime." It is more accurate to say that a person occasionally mixes elements of religion into their criminality than to say that any particular religion motivates a person to become criminal.

Raschke uses the word "Witch" a few times in this chapter when referring to Constanzo, Constanzo's girlfriend Sarah Aldrete or their followers. He is probably getting this idea from the Mexican authorities, who refer to Aldrete as a "Brujo," a Spanish term which loosely translates as "witch" in the sense that the person practices folk magic.

Raschke makes no secret of his opinions of Witches in his book either: "It is quite common for witches and others in the occult subculture to bully and intimidate each other through 'psychic warfare'."(13) Raschke offers no examples to prove his point, and it seems that he is simply projecting the Christian concept of "spiritual warfare" onto those that he disagrees with here.

Raschke further demonstrates his ignorance by stating: "Certainly, widely separated groups may all read Anton LaVey's Satanic Bible, or they may cast spells from the occult classic, The Necronomicon."(14) Later in Painted Black, Raschke states: "The snug relationship between occult fantasy and the actual practice of the occult is well established in history. Writers such as H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Rice Burroughs, progenitor of the Tarzan and Jane tales, were practicing occultists."(15)

First of all, the Necronomicon was not an "occult classic," it is a modern hoax. I am continually running into people that have bought the Necronomicon and think that it is an actual magickal grimoire. The truth is that it is a clever hoax. There are at least four versions of it, one of which simply repeats the first 20 pages over and over, as if the author expected that no one in his right mind would read any further before discarding it.

The well known fantasy writer H.P. Lovecraft mentioned it in his works and it is widely believed that at least one version of the Necronomicon was written by him under a pseudonym as a joke, although this cannot be conclusively proven. It is possible that someone seized upon Lovecraft's idea and wrote it for the same reason, but no one has come forward to claim responsibility.

While we are on the subject of H.P. Lovecraft, contrary to what Raschke claims, Lovecraft was not a "practicing occultist." Lovecraft was a materialist and a skeptic. Raschke should have read L. Sprague De Camp's Lovecraft: A Life.

Towards the end of this chapter Raschke makes the following curious statement: "Satanist psychology will probably never be delineated clearly in a court of law."(16) If this is so, one wonders how Raschke can justify appearing in court as an expert witness, professing to be able to "clearly delineate" Satanic beliefs?

The next chapter in Painted Black is "Murder on Main Street." This is Raschke's account of the homicide case involving Theron Pete Roland, Ron Clements and Jim Hardy. These individuals were clearly self-styled followers of Satanism at the time that they killed Stephen Newberry. But Raschke tries to link them to a shadowy national conspiracy of Satanists.

Raschke attempts this by introducing accounts by several unidentified teenage "witnesses," including three boys given the pseudonyms "Eddie," "Tom" and "Barry" by Raschke. Typically, we are left to take his word for their accounts, since he gives us no details to allow us to corroborate their claims. These accounts say that Jim Hardy was a member of an organization known as "The Crowd," which in turn elected a "Council of 18" which Raschke says "reportedly had ties to several major covens, or occult groups."(17)

Raschke relies heavily here on the dubious testimony of the mysterious "Eddie", who claims to be a member of Anton LaVey's Church of Satan. Raschke tells us that Eddie is a "retail clerk in a shopping mall."(18) Eddie alleges that "The Crowd managed most of the day-to-day drug operations in southern Missouri" and describes rallies in the countryside with "thousands of people there"(19) during which "the leaders of the group would arrive in a semi-truck, and they would distribute free drugs to whoever showed up."(20) Eddie asserts that "It's a network just as large as the federal government has for transporting its own goods!"(21) Neither Eddie nor Raschke attempts to explain why the police never discovered these massive rallies.

Raschke quotes Eddie's incredible accounts of Satanism liberally. For example, Raschke quotes Eddie as saying that "A satanist does not pursue the subject of Latin, but he does endeavour to master an obscure and impenetrable language known as Enochean. Enochean is what witches are supposed to speak. It sounds little like a cross between Chinese and Arabic... LaVey wrote down and made a science out of the magical language of Enochean..."(22) I don't mean to demean retail clerks in shopping malls, but I'll bet the average retail clerk knows nothing of Enochian language. Neither does Raschke, apparently.

Enochian was actually an "angelic language" with a corresponding system of magic created by the Elizabethan ceremonial magician John Dee and his medium Edward Kelley in the 17th century CE. Kelly would go into trance and spell out Enochian words revealed to him by angels while Dee transcribed what Kelley said.

Enochian has a corresponding magickal alphabet. Enochian is properly written from right to left like a Semitic language, though in modern times casual users of Enochian language or alphabets may write it from left to right as in European languages. One occasionally finds numbers interspersed with letters in Enochian: Specifically the numbers 8, 21, 26 and 30. The number 21 is meant to be read as a letter E and the other three numbers as a letter L.

John Dee subsequently created an Enochian system of magick, based on 48 "Keys" or "Calls" obtained in Enochian language through Kelly. This was adopted a century later by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. According to Israel Regardie, the Order of the Golden Dawn considered Enochian magic to be the "crown and jewel" of their system.

In the 1960s Anton LaVey borrowed the Enochian language and 48 Keys for his Satanic Bible and Satanic Rituals. LaVey claimed in his books that Enochian was a Satanic language. This has lead some modern Christians call Satanic beliefs "Enochian." Eddie and Raschke obviously think so. If they had read LaVey's works more thoroughly they would have found many Latin terms in them too. If they had done a little more reading they might have discovered that Enochian is not and never has been a language used by or attributed to Witches. The rest of Eddies "revelations" to Raschke about Satanism are as bizarre as this one.

Raschke then turns this chapter into a rambling discussion about Aleister Crowley, French ceremonial magician and author Alphonse Constant (better known by his pen name: Eliphas Levi), and finally spiritualist Albert Pike. From here Raschke enters into a discussion of the Klu Klux Klan, to which he claims Pike was linked. Raschke then suggests that the fact that Pike's papers are stored at the University of Arkansas, about an hours drive from the homicide scene in the Roland/Hardy/Clements case, is somehow meaningful. Raschke continues: "Significantly, the same locale was the base of operations for the Aryan Nations gang from 1983 to 1985."(23) Through some mysterious process of logic Raschke then concludes: "The merger of white racist terrorism and Satanism is a somewhat recent, and dangerous, phenomenon that has been closely watched and documented by law enforcement agencies across the country."(24)

The problem with Raschke's argument here is that the Aryan Nations is lead by an extremist "Identity" Christian, Rev. Richard Butler. Aryan Nations is a part of Butler's "Church of Jesus Christ Christian." While clearly militant and racist, neither this nor the Klu Klux Klan are Satanic organizations.

From this point Raschke launches into the next chapter, "Bad Moon Rising: The Epidemic of Satanic Crime in America." As the title suggests, Raschke tries to prove in this chapter that Satanism has reached epidemic proportions in America. Raschke states that "unlike rumoured alien spacecraft, the satanists have left shiploads of physical evidence, including cadavers."(25) Raschke attempts to prove his assertion in the same manner that many of the other "experts" that I have written about in this series try to accomplish this: Rashcke quotes selected sensational newspaper articles. Raschke does not name the newspapers or authors of these articles in the text, nor does he footnote these examples in any way, leaving the readers to figure this out for themselves from the bibliography at the end of the book. Of the forty five examples that he gives:

Twenty are vague accounts of alleged Satanism with no names of suspects or dates listed and usually not identifying the complainant or witness;

One reports that Michael Aquino of the Temple of Set was charged with alleged child abuse at the Presidio day care center, failing to mention that these charges were later dropped and also omitting that a Christian clergy person was also charged;

One is a report of the murder of fundamentalist Christian Paulette Jane Sherman, whose body was found mutilated. There is no mention of Satanism in this article, and the reader is supposed to infer that if the victim was Christian then the perpetrator must have been Satanic;

One states that convicted murderer Terry L. Lowery alleges that the Klu Klux Klan was replacing cross burning ceremonies with rituals in which they sacrificed babies. No evidence of this is offered;

One is a report of cannibalistic killer Stanley Dean Baker, which does not involve Satanism at all;

One describes the case of Arthur Gary Dill, who, with several unnamed accomplices, is alleged to have committed 169 counts of sexual molestation of children, including the making of "snuff" movies. Horrible stuff, but again, no evidence given and no mention of Satanism;

One describes serial killer Wayne Williams, but does not say that he was not a Satanist;

One reports that in Phoenix, AZ, 140 dogs have been found slain and speculates that they MAY have been killed by Satanists;

Two regard juvenile self styled Satanists who committed suicide;

One says that two unidentified men in a van were stopped in Tallahasee, FL, by the highway patrol with six "filthy and abused children in tow [which they] contended ...had been given to them by a Satanic cult..."(26) In fact the police in Florida concluded that these individuals were members of a Christian pacifist cult group called "The Finders" which is not Satanic at all (a fact which Raschke reveals later on in Painted Black, claiming that if the authorities had looked closer they would have agreed with Raschke's opinion that they were Satanic);

One involves Jeanette Louise Tracy and Michael Dean Tracy, convicted of beating Jim Lee Stewart to death with a baseball bat. The defence in this trial tried to convince the court that Michael had been forced to commit this homicide by his belief in spells cast by Jeanette. The defence failed. Michael was convicted;

One describes the double suicide of Bruce and Pamela Covey, who shot themselves in their truck. Raschke reports that they were found to be wearing what he considers "Satanic" jewellery and that occult books were found in their residence, which proves nothing;

One describes the murder of Teresa Simmons, stating that she was killed by unidentified friends in an allegedly Satanic ritual;

One describes the homicide of Ernest Weil during a robbery by two unidentified Navajos, near a watering hole where there was some graffiti alleged to be Satanic but which is not described. The inference here is that Native Indian beliefs are Satanic, which is not true;

One states that the Illinois general assembly had approved legislation to curb Satanic crime, which proves nothing other than the extent of the hysteria about Satanic cults;

One reports that in Texas the police have set up a laboratory and a simulation center to train police in the investigation of Satanic crime. This doesn't prove that such crime exists, it merely proves that someone has bought into the Satanic conspiracy myth. Raschke doesn't name this simulation center, but he is likley referring to the "occult crime" training done at the Killeen, Texas police academy under the direction of Walker Veal, a known promoter of SRA theories;

One announces: "A coven of self-described 'black witches' in Houston, Texas, protested to the newspapers that their reputation was in jeopardy because of all the reports of satanist-related crime. 'We don't drink blood. Maybe we'll have a rare steak once in a while,' they told a reporter. Satanists do not even consider 'Satan' to be the embodiment of the power of evil, one woman said, and they do not cast spells to hurt people. Satan is, on the contrary, the 'embodiment of life'. Rituals are for fun- pure and simple. 'You put on a robe, it puts you in the mood'."(27) The group isn't identified so there is no way of verifying this claim.

Raschke also enters into a lengthy discussion of the McMartin Daycare case. Curiously, he starts by saying that "Whereas the outcome of the McMartin case exonerated the preschool operators of wrongdoing, it did not necessarily resolve any of the broader issues surrounding ritual child abuse."(28) I agree that the case did not resolve any of the broader issues, starting with the hysteria that causes such cases to commence in the first place. But what Raschke is inferring here is that the case should have resulted in convictions, which is the job of the courts to decide, not Raschke.

Having listed these "examples", many of which don't involve Satanism, and most of which are unsubstantiated, Raschke proceeds to vehemently attack a legitimate expert in the field of ritualistic crime, Ken Lanning of the FBI:

"While hundreds of cops almost every day are confronted with mutilated animal carcasses, drug-related slayings with macabre and occult overtones, religious desecrations, and neo-Nazi acts of violence and terrorism, the bureau's 'Satanist expert', Ken Lanning, has endeavoured to discredit virtually anyone inside or outside of law enforcement who thinks ritual crime in America might somehow be a problem. Lanning's method of operation has been bizarre... In a paper titled "Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: A Law Enforcement Perspective"... Lanning rakes the reader with volley after volley of emotional diatribe, innuendo, non sequitur, glittering and unsupported generality, and bogus appeal to his own authority... written with the literacy, the research sophistication, and the rhetorical finesse of a high school sophomore, Lanning's piece... examines no cases, sifts through no evidence, and cites no literature. It merely growls, bullies, and browbeats with all the subtlety of a charging mastodon".(29)

Lanning is a nationally recognized expert in the area of sexual abuse of children and his book Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives with co authors Robert K. Ressler and Ann W. Burgess is considered an investigative text book on the subject. I have a copy of Lanning's paper Satanic, Occult, Ritualistic Crime: A Law Enforcement Perspective (which I highly recommend). Lanning presents simple facts in a very articulate manner, facts which show that the idea of a multi-national, multi-generational Satanic conspiracy are clearly preposterous. Raschke's anger over Lanning's work is clearly indicative of his own concern about his precious theories being shot down by serious investigators who can see through his shoddy scholarship. Raschke even stoops to quoting Lanning out of context, claiming that Lanning said: "Satanism may also have a positive social function, according to Lanning. 'Ritualistic crime may fulfil the cultural, spiritual, sexual and psychological needs of an offender'".(30) What Lanning actually stated in this paper was:

"The biggest confusion, however, is over the word ritualistic. During law enforcement training conferences on this topic, ritualistic almost always comes to mean satanic or at least spiritual. Ritual can refer to a prescribed religious ceremony, but in its broader meaning refers to any customarily repeated act or series of acts. The need to repeat these acts can be cultural, sexual, or psychological as well as spiritual...

"...sexual ritualism...is nothing more than repeatedly engaging in an act or a series of acts in a certain manner because of a sexual need. In order to become aroused and/or gratified, a person must engage in the act in a certain way... This is more than the concept of M.O. (Method of Operation) known to most police officers. M.O. is something done by an offender because it works. Sexual ritual is something done by an offender because of a need. Deviant acts, such as urinating on, defecating on, or even eviscerating a victim, are far more likely to be the result of sexual ritualism than religious or 'Satanic' ritualism.

"From a criminal investigative perspective, two other forms of ritualism must be recognized. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R) defines Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as 'repetitive, purposeful and intentional behaviours that are performed in response to an obsession, or according to certain rules or in a stereotyped fashion.' Such compulsive behaviour frequently involves rituals. Although such behaviour usually involves noncriminal activity...occasionally compulsive ritualism can be part of criminal activity. Certain gamblers or firesetters, for example, are thought by some authorities to be motivated in part through such compulsions. Ritual can also stem from psychotic hallucinations and delusions. A crime can be committed in a precise manner because a voice told the offender to do it that way or because a divine mission required it.

"To make this more confusing, cultural, religious, sexual and psychological ritualism can overlap. Some psychotic people are preoccupied with religious delusions and hear the voice of God or Satan telling them to do things of a religious nature. Offenders who feel little, if any, guilt over their crimes may need little justification for their antisocial behaviour. As human beings, however, they may have fears, concerns and anxiety over getting away with their criminal acts. It is difficult to pray to God for success in doing things that are against His commandments. A negative spiritual belief system may fulfil their human need for assistance from and belief in a greater power or to deal with their superstitions. Compulsive ritualism (e.g., excessive cleanliness or fear of disease) can be introduced into sexual behaviour. Even many 'normal' people have a need for order and predictability and therefore may engage in family or work rituals. Under stress or in times of change, this need for order and ritual may increase.

Location: Surrey, British ColumbiaWebsite: http://www.officersofavalon.comBio: Kerr Cuhulain the author of this article, is known to the mundane world as Detective Constable Charles Ennis. Ennis, a former child abuse investigator, is the author of several articles on child abuse investigation that appeared in Law & Order Magazine. Better known to the Pagan community by his Wiccan name, Kerr Cuhulain, Ennis was the first Wiccan police officer to go public about his beliefs 28 years ago. Kerr is now the Preceptor General of Officers of Avalon. Kerr went on to write four books: The Law Enforcement Guide to Wicca (Horned Owl Publishing), Wiccan Warrior and Full Contact Magick: A Book of Shadows for the Wiccan Warrior. (Llewellyn Publications), as well as a book based on this series: Witch Hunts: Out of the Broom Closet (Spiral Publishing).

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